The problem of providing remote and after hours supply of pharmaceuticals has been addressed before.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,330,491 and 6,438,451 disclose a system for automating the dispensing of drugs using a dispensing machine. The script is sent over the internet from the doctors premises or the patient's premises and the drugs are made available at the dispensing machine by the pharmacist. No direct contact between the patient and the pharmacist occurs.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,564,121 and 6,735,497 provide an internet based system of communicating a script to a pharmacy which then makes the drugs available by mail or at a designated pick up point which may be a dispensing machine. Again there is no contact between the patient and pharmacist.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,871,783 discloses a pharmacy remote link for scanning and sending script to Pharmacy and also for payment. There is no disclosure of a dispensing machine.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,529,801 and 6,766,218 disclose a similar arrangement in that a script is sent by a doctor to a pharmacist for delivery from a vending machine. The vending machine includes a gantry row and column product transport system with magazines of product and uses a pusher to move product from each product magazine onto the gantry carrier. The gantry carrier has a bar code scanner to identify the contents of each magazine. The machine includes a reject bin if the bar code scan is not positive. The dispenser needs an authorization code to actuate the dispensing of the drugs.
These prior art attempts at dealing with this problem depend on the doctor or patient sending the prescription electronically to the pharmacist whereas often the patient has a hard copy of the prescription and may not be able to send this to the pharmacist. The dispensing machines do not allow any interaction by the consumer with the pharmacist and this is usually unsatisfactory for the consumer and in some jurisdictions does not comply with the regulations.
Australian patent application 2003203618 discloses a pharmaceutical dispenser communicating with a remote pharmacist. The dispenser has a video that can scan one of prescription or purchaser and incorporates a printer to print a label. The dispenser can be actuated by the pharmacist to release the package. This disclosure goes part of the way in improving the control and quality of remote dispensing.
It is an object of this invention to provide a remote dispensing machine for pharmaceuticals or other restricted goods that allows for direct communication between the purchaser and the vendor in a manner that is convenient and fail safe.